Let’s start with an invitation. Make plans now to pack up family and friends and set out on a food-centric road trip for the day of December 2, 2023. It’s The Great Garner Chicken Bog presented by my friends at Agri Supply and Carolina Cooker. The event will take place in the parking lot at the Agri Supply store in Garner NC. This is the flagship store for the farm and supply/hardware store, headquartered in Garner since 1962.
It’s all happening rain or shine, from 10 am till 2 pm , or as long as the chicken bog (and the local oysters they are steaming for the occasion) last. Be there. It’s going to be a blast! #TellThemHeidiSentYou
Agri Supply Garner, is located at 409 US-70, in Garner, NC 27529, just outside of Raleigh NC.
Jason Allen from Carolina Cooker appeared on WRAL with host Ken Smith to talk about the Great Garner Chicken Bog, the week before the event. You can watch that video here.
Heidi Billotto
What’s a Chicken Bog?
A Chicken Bog is a time-honored Southeastern NC one-dish meal made of slow cooked chicken, sausage and rice. It’s simple but thick, rich and delicious blend of flavor. Traditionally this dish is prepared in a large cast iron pot for large gatherings of family and friends. Best part: If you live in North Carolina, it’s super simple to make this an all local dish.
It was my pleasure to host Carolina Cooker’s Jason Allen as he cooked up a “preview batch” of his Chicken Bog as one of the chefs on the GotToBeNC cooking stage at the NC State Fair back in October 2023.
Onstage with Jason at the fair were farmers Tommy Wheeler of Tidewater Grain Company in Oriental NC and Danny Brown of BFR Meats in Boone. Here they all are with our chefs’ table participants for the NC State Fair Chicken Bog demo
At the fair, Jason fancied the recipe up a bit with some delicious fritters made with the vegetables he used to flavor the broth.
And then, thanks to a little help from NC Wines, wine guru Brianna Burns, we fancied it up even more, serving the bog and fritters at the fair with an award-winning NC wine, Brandon Hills Vineyards, Dry Reisling 2022. it was a perfect pairing.
Can I get the Chicken Bog recipe?
Of course, that’s a yes to the recipe request. In fact, I got two versions of the time-honored recipe for you.
First, you can scroll to the bottom of this page for the Chicken Bog recipe Jason made at the Fair.
Or, at the Great Garner Chicken Bog event on Saturday, Carolina Cooker and Agri Supply will be handing out these recipe cards for a more traditional version of the same. One you can easily make it home in a 8-9 qt Carolina Cooker Dutch oven or roaster, just like Jason did at the fair.
Cooking in Carolina Cooker Cast Iron
Proud to say Jason and I are good friends and I’m happy to help him promote this event. I also appreciate the fact, that Carolina Cooker is a sponsor of the annual NCRLA Chef Showdown. The Chef Showdown is a statewide culinary and Mixology competition event that I head up for the NCRLA. Our 8th season kicks off in late January 2024.
Sponsorships aside, I do love the Carolina Cooker cast iron pans Jason has designed for home cooks and chefs alike. These pans boast signature square handles and pre-seasoned surfaces, and have become go-to’s in my personal collection. If I had to pick a favorite, it’s the 15-inch, double- handled skillet.
It’s an easy oven-to-table option. And, it’s great for cooking on the stovetop or in the oven or on the grill. It easily holds 5 lbs. of seafood, chicken, beef or pork or a dozen eggs. Just what you need when you are cooking for a crowd. Get one for yourself and you’ll see what I mean. Chefs like my friend Preeti Waas of Cheeni (with locations in Raleigh and Durham) photographed here with Jason, love “my pan”, too!!
But, Let’s Get Back to the Bog
At the Great Garner Chicken Bog event on Saturday, the team at Carolina Cooker is raising the bar. Both on the size of the pot and on the original recipe. Jason and crew are cooking 90 gallons of bog in their largest cast iron stew pot! This cast iron cooking vessel is enormous. Read more about it here.
On Saturday, Agri Supply and Carolina Cooker will also be saluting several North Carolina products and farmers in the recipe and at the Chicken Bog event.
Tommy Wheeler of Tidewater Grain Company, the largest NC rice farm growing heirloom grains like Carolina Gold Rice and Danny Brown of BFR Meats and host at the popular annual Dinner in the Gap event in Boone, both joined Jason on stage at the Fair.
They will both be lending a hand at the event on Saturday and Chad Blackwelder with the NC Department of Agriculture will be there, as well.
Kristin Taber Wolfe from House of Raeford was at the fair, too – but it was tricky getting us all in the same photo at the same time. So I did a little bit of cut and paste for this post. Here’s the who’s who…
How much local product do you need to fill a 90 Gallon Cast Iron Cookpot?
What does it take to fill a 90 gallon Carolina Cooker Cast Iron pot full of Chicken Bog? So glad you asked!!
I did a little mathematical research and here’s a fun fact. Once this massive pot is full of cooked Chicken Bog – the weigh in will be close to 700 plus lbs. That’s a lot of chicken blog, so come hungry!
Here’s the start of the story by the numbers… in this Chicken Bog Recipe, makers will need
64 lbs. of House of Raeford’s Chicken from Rose Hill NC
24 lbs. of BFR Meats’ Smoked Sausage from Boone NC
32 lbs. of Tidewater Grain Company’s Carolina Gold Rice from Oriental NC
Because Man Cannot Live By Chicken Bog Along, there will also be Steamed Oysters and Delicious Desserts
In addition to the free servings of chicken bog and the live cooking demo to show the crowd how to cook in a 90 gallon pot, there will also be steamed oysters from Lighthouse Shoal Oyster Company.
These are Grace Point Oysters raised in the local waters surrounding Merritt NC. I’ve had the pleasure of tasting them right off the dock and they are truly so delicious. Need oysters for the holidays? Alex and Stephene at Lighthouse Shoal will be glad to work with you to get product in your hands. Give them a shout here. #TellThemHeidiSentYou
At the Great Garner Chicken Bog, these lovely local oysters will be steamed in another terrific Carolina Cooker product – the new 140 qt. steamer/boiler combo cart. Just wait till you see it in action.
But, that’s not all. For a sweet spot in the day, Chicken Bog goers will be able to purchase seasonal sips and sweet snacks from Award-Winning Pastry Chef Tie Whitaker of Buttermilk Boutique in Clayton, NC. Tie is setting up a you up a Cocoa Bomb Hot Chocolate station featuring Ran Lew Dairy milk and making cookies and Big Mama’s Peanut Brittle.
And, Randy Lewis of Ran Lew Dairy will be there too, selling cups and cones of his infamous Soft Serve Ice Cream from Ran Lew Dairy in Snow Camp, NC.
Come for the chicken bog, but stay and shop a while
“We wanted to find a fun way to kick off the holiday season and thank our community of Agri Supply customers, as well as the greater Garner and Wake County communities to join us in a day of fun and delicious food,” said Jason Allen of Carolina Cooker. It’s a day to gather and celebrate the season, our local famers and producers and our community. Sample servings of chicken bog and oysters will be available for free as long as they last.”
If you’ve never been in an Agri Supply store before, its reason enough to come to this event and check out all they carry. The chicken bog, steamed oysters and desserts will provide an added bonus.
As I mentioned, the store in Garner is the company’s flagship store. With a 125,000 square foot layout, its easily twice as large as any of the other nine Agri Supply locations from Georgia on up to Virginia.
So plan some time to walk the aisles an pick up everything and anything you need from yard and garden supplies, to rain boots or overalls, farm equipment, cookware and they also carry Tidewater Grain Company Carolina Gold Rice and another longtime locally produced favorite of mine, Le Bleu water.
Santa, Are You Reading This?
Looking for holiday gifts while you are there? The 90 lb cast iron cookpot ( and smaller versions of the same) and the steamer/boiler cart are both available for sale at your local Agri Supply in Garner and at Agri Supply stores across the state just in time for your holiday gift giving. Just Sayin…
Hope to see you on Saturday. In the Meantime, try out Jason’s Chicken Bog recipe and fritters on your own. The Southern Breeze Seafood breader in the recipe is a local gluten free product and is made with Tidewater Grain Company heirloom rice flour. Contact John Mallette at Southern Breeze Seafood for info on ordering online or for a list of retail locations.
Nc State Fair Chicken Bog
Ingredients
For the Chicken Bog
- 3 lbs Chicken leg quarters
- 1 lb. BFR Meats Smoked Sausage, sliced into coins (order online at bfrmeats.com)
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 3 cups Tidewater Grain Company Carolina Gold Rice order online at TidewaterGrain.com or purchase at any Agri Supply Location in North or South Carolina
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter
- 1 Tbsp. Carolina Cooker Eastern NC BBQ Sauce Available at any Agri Supply location
- water to cover
- lots of fresh cracked black pepper
For the Fritters:
- The cooked veggies you used to make the broth for the bog
- 2 cups Southern Breeze Seafood All purpose breader order from Southern Breeze Seafood in Jacksonville NC
- 1 egg
- 2 cups oil, for frying
Instructions
For the Chicken Bog
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In an 8 or 9 qt Carolina Cooker Dutch Oven, add chicken leg quarters, carrots, celery, onion and enough water to easily cover. Place pot over medium low heat and simmer for 1 hr. Make sure not to let the water come to a boil.
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Remove leg quarters and set aside, strain the vegetables and set aside and reserve the broth for later. Wipe the empty Dutch oven clean and place over medium heat
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Once chicken has cooled, pick the meat off the bone into bite sized pieces and set aside
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Add butter to the Dutch oven, once melted add in the sausage and stir occasionally until all has browned a bit. This should take about 5 mins.
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Add in rice and toast in the hot butter with the sausage, stir as you toast, for about 3 minutes
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Add in 6 Cups of the reserved broth and bring to a boil, once boiled, reduce to simmer
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Add in the chicken. Bring back to a simmer, taste for seasoning, adding salt and pepper to your taste along with the Eastern NC sauce. Place the lid on and cook for around 20 mins.
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Serve with fresh black pepper and the traditional white bread or see optional vegetable fritter below
For the Veggie Fritter:
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In a large bowl, mash the vegetables lightly with your hands to release some of the broth they’ve taken on during the cooking process
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Place vegetables in a salad spinner and spin to dry out; or pat dry with a towel.
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Heat oil to medium high in a large cast iron skillet
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Add vegetables to a bowl with 1 egg and enough breader to form a wet dough consistency
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Shape the dough into 2” rounds
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Check to see the oil is hot and add fritters to the skillet, careful not to overcrowd the pan
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Turn occasionally and cook for 6-8m, remove to a wire cake rack fitted over a cookie sheet with sides to catch any extra oil.
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Serve with the chicken bog or with your favorite dipping sauce